Ontario’s risk management program for livestock producers has barely
begun and already the National Pork Producers Council in the United States is
threatening trade action.
Council president R.C. Hunt has sent a letter to Congress urging
opposition to Canada being allowed to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership
free-trade talks.
He says it’s not fair that Canada subsidizes hog farmers who compete with
U.S. producers for export markets.
He calls the Ontario risk management program a violation of Canada’s
commitments under the World Trade Organization and threatens to use U.S.
countervailing duties against Canadians.
His letter says nothing about the U.S. violation of World Trade Organization
standards with its Country-of-Origin Labeling (COOL) regulations that have, and
still are, pressuring Canadian hog prices lower.
Hunt points to an
analysis by Dermot Hayes an economist at Iowa State University , to claim that Ontario’s Risk Management
Program will hurt U.S. hog farmers by $162 million and the loss of 1,299 jobs. But that's over 10 years - in other words, a straight guess about a miniscule issue.
“The RMP is
just one of Canada’s support programs, all of which have a substantial negative impact on U.S. pork producers,” wrote Hunt. Really? Name some.
“The willingness of the Canadian government to repeal these trade- distorting hog and pork programs must be part of (U.S. Trade Representative’s) assessment of Canada’s eligibility for membership in the
TPP
negotiations,” Hunt says.
“Unless Canada undertakes such a commitment, the U.S.
should not consent to its participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks,” Hunt wrote.
Federal Agriculture
Minister Gerry Ritz has been outspoken in refusing to put any federal money
into the Ontario RMP, and Ritz has repeatedly warned that the Ontario program
could lead to trade retaliation.
But let's hear somebody in Canada speaking up to Hunt. Maybe he's a Republican running for the presidential nomination. How else to do you explain such wackiness?
But let's hear somebody in Canada speaking up to Hunt. Maybe he's a Republican running for the presidential nomination. How else to do you explain such wackiness?
